A study on PMMA-co-MAA hollow colloidosomes prepared via pickering emulsion method

In this modern day, there are many fields of application that use microcapsules in encapsulating active ingredients, especially for a targeted delivery purpose. Microcapsules can be in various form, and one of them is colloidosomes which has the outer layer or the shell made up from colloidal particles. Colloidosomes are favourable for microencapsulation as they offer significant flexibility which can effectively be used for controlled release delivery of active ingredients. Pickering emulsion is one of the earliest established way to prepare for colloidosomes. Pickering emulsion offers excellent stability and low toxicity in preparing colloidosomes, which is applicable in biomedical application. Pickering emulsion works such a way that the adsorption of colloidal particles onto surface of droplets of emulsion and will form the shells. In this study, a study on Polymethyl methacrylate co methacrylic acid (PMMA-co-MAA) hollow colloidosomes prepared via Pickering emulsion was conducted. This study is conducted in prior to prepare the hollow colloidosomes via Pickering emulsion and to characterize the sizes of the colloidosomes. There are a few parameters were studied such as concentration of structural polymer, concentration of surfactant, amplitude of ultrasonicator probe, oil to water (O/W) phase ratio and speed of homogenizer. The parameters were studied to study the effect on the sizes of colloidosomes. Results of the study shown that as the concentration of structural polymer and the oil to water phase ratio increased, the sizes of colloidosomes were increased. Different patterns were observed for the parameters of concentration of surfactant, amplitude of ultrasonicator probe and speed of homogenizer, as they were increased, the size of colloidosomes were decreased. The sizes of the colloidosomes and solid particles were observed under Optical microscope and further characterized by using Fluorescence microscope to observe the hollow core of the colloidosomes.